Keepers: More than a life choice
by DarkAngel-N7
Summary: A crossover that uses lots of bits and pieces from just as many shows and games. If someone can get them all when I mark this complete then I will fnd a way to send you a prize! May be made M later. *sigh* yet another idea that got pushed out by a newer one; still in progress, just need to get back to it. Priority 4 for completion
1. Just one of those days

Just thought I'd add an author's note here – I have not given up on the other stories. It's just that I am currently doing my exams and I have been busy with revision as I'm doing re-sits as well.

Stab, pivot, parry, slash. Well that's another merc I don't have to worry about anymore. Two if you count the one Fleet finished after I stabbed him.

"Hey Phoenix! At your five!" I turn at the shout from Dozer to see an eclipse merc bringing a rocket launcher to bear on me. I bring up my pistol and two bolts of green energy hit the merc in her chest, going right past her kinetic barriers and cooking her internal organs.

"Thanks for the heads up!" I yell back. Then the shooting stops and I realise that all the mercs are done – lying on the floor, most of them smoking from some sort of wound, using weapons that weren't supposed to exist only made it easier. "Kara clean up the security would you?"

"Of course Phoenix. Extraction is arriving now." Came the disembodied female voice. I sighed; I wished that Kara would use some of her emotion sometimes; it didn't mean her useful life was coming to an end after all. Our dropcraft was coming in over the rooftops; it looked like a defender mark II from that old game UPF: Dropship with a slightly smaller wing. It touched down lightly in front of our squad of five, lowered its rear ramp and we all trooped inside. I sat down and pulled my helmet off, relived that another op was done and we hadn't had anyone injured. After that had passed I had to try really hard to remember when this was all just a game.

A few months earlier

"Argh!"

"God FUCKING DAMN IT!" I smirked as Nathan screamed down the microphone at me as I blew out his characters chest again with my assault rifle. I teabagged him just to piss him off more because that made him play worse which made it easier to kill him again. I caught a glimpse of something on some cliffs just as my characters head exploded from a well-placed sniper round.

"Ha ha! Eat it bitch!" I hate it when Lucy gets the drop on me – she always rubs it in my face. I changed my weapons while I was respawning to get a better shot at her, she was always sniping. Although she was also good at ambushing and I had fallen to her sidearm and knife many times. I respawned and immediately start scanning for Lucy but instead I see Nathan. I knew he couldn't see me but I grinned victoriously anyway, lined up the shot and pulled the trigger. "Game over." Came the game announcer. I looked at my scoreboard with interest; I had gotten a double kill with that last shot apparently. But it wasn't Lucy I got sooo…

"Umm Richard… did I use you for the winning kill?" the deep breathing coming through the headset I was wearing was all the answer I needed but he confirmed it anyway.

"You. Stole. My. Kill." We couldn't help it – we all just started laughing. Well all but Richard. Eventually we calmed down enough to speak normally although all we did was say goodbye.

"See you at collage tomorrow yeah?"

"Yeah sure Richard see you tomorrow." There was a click as Richard disconnected. "Mm thinking about it guys I've got to go too – got some notes to copy up." I grimaced at the thought of work coming up but knew that it couldn't be put off any longer. Lucy picked up on it – that was one of the annoying things about her being my ex – she knew me too well. But not well enough to see the feelings I hid from her.

"How long has it been there for?" Again even though she couldn't see me I still looked guilty.

"Less than last time…"

"That's not too hard to beat. Last time you left it for over 3 months!"

"Yeah but you can't say it wasn't worth it!" I grinned, knowing that she was probably blushing pretty hard right about now. The reason for that was because we had gotten a bit carried away celebrating her 16th birthday and hadn't been able to keep off each other for that said amount of time

A/N if anybody sends me a review saying that's illegal then I refer you to the fact I'm British.

"That was pretty sickening watching you two back then." Nathan making his presence known again in the convosation.

"Dude you had a hard-on whenever you saw us, and don't deny it because Shannon told us you did! She also said she wanted to do more than see but we stopped her there." And without further ado I quit from the party and turned off my x-box.

The notes actually didn't take that long to do. Not that I'd tell Lucy that as she'd just rub it in my face. I spent the rest of my time before I went to sleep on my personal project. It started off as a replica of the gun on Primeval, but I had pulled out most of the components and re-built it as a working model. I actually managed to finish it about five minutes before I went to sleep. It also woke me up in the morning… by me shooting myself with it. "AHH! FUCK! THAT IS THE LAST TIME I SLEEP WITH A GUN!" well at least I knew that it worked and what it felt like. Ah well time to get up.

About an hour later I was on the bus – with the PCL (Projectile Charge Launcher) strapped under my jacket. And so begins another uneventful collage day. Lessons, break, more lessons and then lunch. Lunch was when for five of us, life got pretty damn weird.

We were all discussing the PCL while most of us were trying to eat.

"Wait so let me get this straight… you went to sleep with a gun that shoots electricity… and then you woke yourself up… by shooting yourself with the gun that shoots electricity?" Lucy was barely holding back her laughter at this point.

"Do you really think that I would be stupid enough to shoot myself intentionally?" I glared at her.

"Yep pretty much." I was a bit surprised that Richard was keeping a straight face. Then I saw that he was having a hard time as well. Nathan was just busting a gut on the floor and I was rapidly coming to a decision as to how to test the PCL again.

"Would anyone like to see what it can do?" Lucy and Richard raised an eyebrow, Nathan was still laughing on the floor. I reached inside my jacket and drew it out, pointed it at Nathan, made sure that the charge setting was on minimum and with the slightest smirk I shot him.

"AHH! FUCK!" it was my turn to laugh at someone getting shot by a PCL. And I liked it!

"The best part is that it has different settings so, it can inconvenience like it just did or, it can cause unconsciousness or in extreme cases it can kill."

"INCONVENIENCE? THAT FELT LIKE MY NERVES WERE ON FIRE!" Nathan screamed at me.

"Well maybe you won't find it so funny when someone else is shot with this thing then will you!" I shot back. We stood there glaring at each other for a few seconds. And then we burst out laughing – we were too good friends to fall out over this.

"Well it's nice to see that you two are ok with each other again. What was it about this time?" Roslyn said as she walked up.

"Oh I just shot him with this." I said holding up the PCL for her to see. She just nodded.

"Well, that aside I came to find you to bring you outside. Everyone else is already there so we decided you needed sun. So get off your asses and scoot!" she emphasised this with arm gestures and a glare. If you have never seen Ros glare then it can't be described: it's a force of nature, it can't be stopped and it can't be resisted. So we all just looked at each other, stood up and followed her out the canteen.

We walked in silence pretty much until we had gotten to the door. I hadn't been out in the sun for a while you see, so I was almost white… and I had been to the art room before break anticipating this… can anyone see where this is going? I had gone and stuck some fine glitter on my face, neck, hands and arms. Just to see what people would say. So just before we went outside I took off my jacket and gave it to Nathan with a wink – he helped me come up with it.

I took a deep breath. And stepped out into the sun. After a quick check that the desired effect was happening looked up. Into about three hundred speechless faces.

"Umm… hi guys?" I took a quick look back over my shoulder and saw that once again Nathan was struggling not to laugh, Richard was sniggering, Ros was wearing the same stunned face as all the rest and last but not least Lucy was giving me one of her 'I'm going to kill you later' looks.

"Aiden, why THE FUCK are you sparkling?"

"Cos sparkly is the new non-sparkly, it's gonna be the latest fashion!"

I'm not too sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that everyone was distracted from me just then.

We all heard the sound of a jet engine. But it was much closer than usual. And I picked up something wrong about the sound – I wanted to become a pilot after college, so I had spent quite a bit of time learning about aircraft. This one sounded like it was surging. And that's a very bad thing for a plane engine to do – it means the plane has to land if it doesn't stop in under a minute.

A/N I don't actually know if it needs to land, I just know it can seriously damage the engine if it's not stopped.

This one's pilot had decided to land on our college football field (English football!). It was pretty long so he just might do it as well.

I've got to say the way the plane's pilot landed it was masterful, but it needed work. The plane came in low over the houses at the far end, cleared the goalposts and came down on its belly. It skidded along the field and one of the wingtips clipped the mid-set of goalposts and that sent it into a lateral spin.

The plane eventually slid to a stop not that far from where we were. I could see the pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit. They looked to be fine but a bit shell-shocked. I ran in front of the plane waving my arms until I had their attention. Then I made a cutting gesture across my throat telling them to cut the engines – they were still running. They did so. Next I signed for them to open the doors – it was only a small plane if you've not figured it out yet so it didn't need inflatable slides.

The steps touched the ground and when no-one came out I darted in, ignoring people shouting at me to back off in case something went wrong. I looked over to where people were gathering. I was disgusted to see that most of them were filming this on their mobiles instead of helping.

The cabin was dark except from the light from the windows. There were sixteen people sat down two sides. Most were unconscious and the ones that weren't were in bad shape. I leaned back out the door.

"I could do with a hand here! Especially people with first aid or medical training!" a few people started running toward me when I said that, only to be stopped by one of the teachers that had come out to see what could be done. The only people who didn't stop were Nathan, Richard, Lucy and Roslyn. It didn't take them long to reach me.

"What do you need us to do?" asked Richard. I gave them a smile to show them I appreciated this. Then I realised that I was still sparkly. The smile faded quickly.

"Right, we can start by going through and checking injuries. If it's serious but we can move them then we get them as far as we can from the plane – it could be leaking fuel." I paused as my nose picked up a vaguely familiar scent. "Make that is leaking fuel, we've got to be quick. You guys get started, I'll see if there's any danger of it igniting." They all nodded. I got out the way and headed toward the wing where the fuel tanks are.

I crouched to get a better look at the starboard wing. It looked fine – no fuel leaks and looked intact. I stood and walked at a fast pace to the door where I had seen Nathan put down my jacket and pulled it back on. After walking around the nose of the plane I crouched next to the port wing. This one was the source of the smell of kerosene. It was dribbling onto the grass and running toward the main body of the plane. I didn't think much of this until I realised that the pilot had done a belly landing as in with no wheels. The actual plane had been in touch with the ground. The friction that must have been produced… it would have been enormous… and where there's friction there's heat…

I ran to the body of the plane and felt the lower section – it was still hot enough to burn my fingers. That meant it was hot enough to set the fuel on fire.

"GUYS GET OUT OF THERE! MOVE, NOW!" I could just hear sirens starting to get here. I ran around the plane to the door. They were all trying to help someone out of the plane. I darted in and slipped into the cockpit. The pilot was trying to get the co-pilot free from his straps. I shoved him out the way and hit the emergency release. "COME ON! GET HIS OTHER ARM AND LET'S MOVE!" I got one arm and the pilot got the other and we basically dragged the co-pilot out of the cockpit.

All the others had waited by the door, stupid fools, I growled at them as we set off as fast as we could away from the plane. We didn't get far before I heard the soft 'wumph' of the fuel catching light. "Aww FUCK!" this was shortly followed by a feeling of intense heat. The shockwave knocked us all down, I noticed that we all ended up on top of the people we were trying to save, and as the heat got worse I noticed that we would probably shield the people from the plane enough that they would live. 'Huh,' part of me went to myself 'five lives for five lives. It seems the balance must be kept.' I had a vague sensation of toasting like on a hot summer day. Then after an orange flare, everything faded to black.


	2. Ailens? Yeah I can handle that

"Wake up human." Huh? Human? What is this guy on? And why is his voice so weird? "I said wake up! We need you to tell us how to work your nice pretty ship." What? I wasn't on a ship! I should be dead! Then again… maybe I am dead and this is actually an afterlife… aww please don't make me admit that religion was right!

Ok time to open my eyes then and see what I have deserved. I do so slowly so as to give my eyes a chance to adjust and to not scare the guy in front of me. "AHH FUCK!" who isn't a guy it seems. The Batarian looks back at me, seemingly amused at frightening me.

Ok Aiden… take a deep breath and try to figure out why you're in Mass Effect. And if you do that then try to figure out when you are in Mass Effect. Cos I don't particularly want to be in the middle of a reaper invasion… either now or anytime frankly. But before I have a chance to do that the Batarian draws my attention back.

"Hey! No drifting off! You're gonna need to be awake a while yet!" I shake my head at him.

"You don't know humans that well do you? I was thinking not going to sleep!" Hey wait a second… is that the PCL I can feel under my jacket? Awesome! It fires energy so it should go straight past kinetic barriers! I like this!

I slip my hand under my jacket. The Batarian looks suspicious but I pass it off as rubbing a twinge. Hmm… he must be confident in his kinetic barriers if he didn't check me over.

It's only now that it hits me – I've not looked around the room yet. I do so, and some features leap out as familiar but I can't quite place them. Then I have my attention drawn to Richard as he's dragged out the room. Mainly because he's complaining at the Batarian doing it.

"Hey! Do you mind! This is hurting my wrists! And my back! Are you military? Because if you are then I demand to speak to your commanding officer!" the Batarian dragging him just rolls his eyes.

"Shut up… please, just shut up." I'm sorry Mr Batarian man… but I'm laughing at that.

"Pfffft… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! LOL!" I get glared at for that. Ah well. It's not like he will be aware much longer. I adjust the charge setting on the PCL to knock the Batarian out. Or at least I hope it does – he's not human so it might affect him differently. "Ok, you said something about controlling the ship?" he nods. "Well that terminal there can be used to access a backdoor in the system." When he looks toward the console, which I chose quite at random, I draw the PCL, aim and like the badass I am, I wait for him to turn back around. "Boo motherfucker!"

The PCL makes its distinctive door-slam sound as it fires. The Batarian drops to the floor. I check if he's still breathing… yep looks like it works the same as it does on humans. Right next stage… there's no-one else in the room so let's go looking for Richard at least and any others that are here. Hmm… looks like the doorways work off a keypad. That one looks right. Hey what do you know? It worked!

I step out of the door and immediately face palm, because I'm on a 304. But… what are Batarians doing on a ship from stargate? Ahh well time to forget about that now as I can clearly hear Lucy's voice coming from one of the nearby rooms.

"… and why do you have four eyes anyway? Is that just a really fancy Halloween costume that you can't get off? It looks very good, but why did you go for the alien one? Those suck!" I decided to short cut whatever the Batarian's reply was and because the door was already open just stormed it firing. There were three Batarians in this room… I didn't want to think about why, but I knew what they did from playing the game. And that made me angry at what the unspoken intention was, so I double tapped them. It caused them to have violent spasms as the electricity coursed through their bodies.

When they were all down on the floor I walked over to Lucy and offered her my hand. "You ok?"

"Yeah. They were being real dickheads though… kept going on about how they were claiming this ship and its crew for the Batarian Hegemony or something…" I stood there and shuffled awkwardly.

"Erm Luce? You know how you thought they were Halloween costumes? They aren't – they are real aliens." She just stared at me.

"Your bullshitting me aren't you?" I shook my head.

"Just try pulling their face off then. You deserve to pull their faces off anyway for what they were going to do to you." Lucy frowned.

"And what were they going to do to me?" I looked up and fixed her eyes with mine.

"The Batarians are mercenaries, pirates, slavers and…" I hesitated.

"And what?" prodded Lucy.

"And rapists." I said in a whisper. Lucy froze when she heard that. Until she took notice of something else I said.

"You said these were Batarians? How did you know what they were?"

"They were in a game I played. It was called Mass Effect, and you played as this character… you know what I'll explain all this later when we've got whoever else is on here free." Lucy considers this for a second and then nods. I sigh heavily and reach over for a pistol on one of the Batarians belts, and then I hand it to Lucy. "Shoot to wound only, also they have a sort of shield that will protect them from slugs." I hold up the PCL. "This takes them down in one shot because it's energy – not solid rounds."

"Sooo… why can't I have an energy gun?" oh god – she was pulling the puppy dog eyes in me! But I couldn't! It's mine and I only have one! Unless… ah ha. I have it! I will bargain, but the price will be something she won't give!

"Only if we figure out where we went wrong. And if we do we see if we can fix it." I felt confident that she wouldn't accept this, because she had refused to do this before.

"Ok… but only if you give it to me for keeps." Wait… what? She accepted? Well… this was unexpected. Lucy saw that I had been thrown by what she had said. "What? You think that I don't wonder where we went wrong?"

"Not to the extent that you wanted to try again no." Lucy stepped closer to me, practically touching me and stared into my eyes.

"Well why don't you find out what you've missed?" I almost fell for it. But her hand moved too fast to the PCL and I noticed it.

"Oh no you don't! You don't get to play with my feelings to get what you want and then run off with it!" I kept my tone threatening yet playful as I let some hurt show on my face. It was enough to let her know that she shouldn't do it again but I wouldn't hold a grudge over it. Any further discussion was cut off as we heard a non-human scream of pain. We exchanged a glance and ran out into the corridor.

There was a Batarian lying in the middle of the corridor, he was clutching his wrist and sobbing. I put him out with a shot to the chest. Roslyn stepped into the doorway the Batarian had apparently come from.

"So… anyone know why we're in Mass Effect?" it didn't surprise me that Ros had figured out what had happened – she was regularly on Mass Effect 3s multiplayer with me. Add to that the fact that she was always on the ball and was a black belt in two martial arts; the Batarian on the floor clutching a broken wrist was explained.

"Well can we leave it until we get Richard back? And since you're here I'm presuming that Nathan is too." For some reason I seemed to be slipping into a leadership role here. It didn't make sense it me because Ros was always a natural leader so why would I step up?

Ros nodded her assent to my suggestion. "Sounds good. You want to lead the way?" ok then. If she wants me to lead I will lead. I moved up to the next door along. There were a couple of voices on the other side.

"So what did you do to the other three? The ones who tried to stop us?" well that sounded like a Batarian in there.

"We airlocked them. They should still be there until the others are finished interrogating the rest. Then we can get rid of them all at once." Yep that was another Batarian, and it sounded like we had additional company. "Did you find the sleeping quarters yet?"

"No, but we can't be far off. We've searched most of the ship now, although some areas are locked down so we can't get in them." Well that sounded like those were the armouries and critical areas of the ship. I decided that was all we were going to get by listening so I decided to go proactive and turn the tables. I braced myself against the doorway, and pivoted into the room.

I tracked one in the sights as I went in and dropped him with a chest shot. Then I dialled back the power slightly and shot the other in the leg and the arm. The first one I shot dropped to the floor soundlessly. The one I had shot at reduced power was still awake and yelled loudly as he fell to the floor. I stepped over to him.

"Right then, fancy answering some questions instead of asking?" my voice dripped menace as I glared at the incapacitated Batarian. He glared back at me.

"Do your worst human! I shall not answer to one as low as you!" he tilted his head to the right. It was an insult in Batarian custom. And I handled it like I would any insult. I tilted my head the same way and raised an eyebrow. And then I shot him with the PCL on its lowest setting (the same one I used on Nathan if you're interested).

After he had stopped screaming I lowered the barrel of the PCL towards the floor. "Still a no?" he just sat there whimpering. I didn't feel any remorse over doing this – I wasn't killing anyone but they were going to. So in my book anything short of that was acceptable to stop them.

"Please… no more… ask your questions. I will answer them truthfully." 'Well that's handy' I thought to myself. All the same… it never hurts to have insurance.

"You do realise that if you don't I'll come back and use something which leaves holes right?" he went really pale and nodded. "Right good. So first – where are the others? By that I mean the other humans, I'm not concerned about the Batarians."

"There should be one more at the end of this corridor. The other three have been taken to the airlock." My eyes narrowed at that and the PCL came back up.

"Where is the airlock they've been put in?"

"Down the hall past the last one of your buddies, take a left, keep going down that corridor until you see a group of us. That's the one."

"Thank you, you've been very helpful." I slid the power back up and knocked him out. I stepped out into the corridor again to find a bloody Batarian on the floor and Ros standing over him. "Really? You beat him to a pulp when you could've knocked him spark out with one punch?" she just pointed at the Batarian that I had coerced into giving me information.

"You can't talk! Besides, Lucy told me what they were going to do to her and I just…" Ros trailed off.

"Mehh I can see why. And I won't hold it against you… you know, is it just me or are these Batarians exceptionally stupid? How much noise have we made? And have they come to look at what's going on? Of course not." I had a point with this – not one had come to investigate. Ah well, I won't curse good luck. "Come on; let's get whoever is in the last one of these rooms. Then we'll make a push on the airlock."

And lo and behold it was Nathan along with a single guard/interrogator. This now raised questions as to who was with Richard in the airlock, because we couldn't think who could have come through with us, if they had come here with us at all or if they were already here or if they came through separately. Ah well. We would get answers soon.

The others were now armed with mass accelerator weapons from the Batarians. As with Roslyn I had asked them to shoot to wound but knew that in a firefight shit did happen. We moved down the corridor making no more sound than we could help. We came to the bulkhead before the airlock without being seen. We could easily see and hear the Batarians on guard duty there.

"When will the others be done? I'm tired of just sitting here. Can't we just flush these and go back and help?" one of the Batarians said.

"You just want to go check out that blonde one don't you? You did look pretty pissed when you pulled guard duty." My grip on the PCL tightened as I heard them talking about Lucy like that. Ros also looked like she wanted to beat them senseless, so I decided to indulge us.

"Right, I'm going to hold up three fingers. When the last one drops we take these sick fuckers out, ok?" I whispered to the rest, they all nodded in response. I gave them a nod back and then held up three fingers. Three… two… one… when the last finger dropped I stepped out of cover and used their confusion to put three out of commission. Ros, Nathan, and Lucy all came out of hiding and opened up with their captured weapons. Most of their rounds were deflected by the Batarians kinetic barriers but some got through, hitting in the arms and chest area mostly. I was closing the distance between me and them, all the time putting shots where it counted.

Personally I found it was a miracle that I wasn't hit while I walked down the corridor. After all, I wasn't taking cover and was the biggest threat because I was taking them down in one shot. Then I was in their faces, using my knowledge of Kung Fu and Karate (mostly from Ros – she's a really good teacher) to avoid the hand to hand blows the Batarians were giving, and I was returning as much as I was giving plus a bit extra.

"Aiden! Get out of the way!" the shout distracted me for a second and I turned my head back to look at it. I just saw Nathan's horrified face as he saw what he made me miss. I felt a line draw itself across the left side of my face as a Batarian tried to shoot me while I was distracted. I fell with the force of it, shooting the bastard that did it as I fell.

Ironically he was one of the last three and the other two no longer had kinetic barriers so they went down pretty quick. I had a pounding headache from that near miss, but hey I'm still here and that's what matters right? Oh hey there's a dead Batarian on me – yuck. I shove that off me and slowly sit up, cos I hurt quite a lot now I'm not focused on fighting.

Only to be shoved back down as first Nathan, then Lucy and finally Ros pile-on me.

"Erm… guys? Can you get off me please? I want to get the others out of the airlock."

Lucy glares at me. "Are you sure you can get them out and keep them inside the ship?" I glared back at her. Trust Lucy to kill your hopes and make you feel nervous. And then I thought of something that made that void. So I dropped my glare and grinned at her instead.

"Yes Lucy I am. Because if this ship is what I think it is then it should have…" I turned my head to the airlock to see which one it was. Right… starboard 22. "Open airlock S22 internal doors."


End file.
